Sweden is arresting two drunk police officers involved in a fatal ship collision
Further details come out about the collision of the British and Danish ships that killed one sailor and left another missing while two officers from the British ship turned out to be drunk and taken into custody. Swedish prosecutors said that a decision on the arrests would be made no later than Thursday, December 16, while it Scot Carrier and its crew undergoes further inspections and interviews.
A spokesman for the British shipping company Scotline Marine Holdings confirmed that the Chief Officer, a Croatian citizen, and the Second Officer, a British citizen, are still detained by Swedish authorities. They reported that as is normal practice in these cases, all crew members on the Scot Carrier were tested for drugs and alcohol and two crew members were found to exceed the Swedish legal limit for alcohol.
The Swedish prosecutor’s office provided further details in a short statement and said after questioning that the British citizen is “suspected of aggravated drunk driving, gross negligence in maritime traffic and of aggravated causing another person’s death. A Croatian citizen is suspected of aggravated drunken driving.” They said that a decision would be made after further investigations that are ongoing by the Swedish authorities together with the Danish and British.
Both the shipping company and the Swedish Transport Administration offered further information about the events that led to the collision that caused the Danish barge Karin Høj to capsize and capture a crew member who was later found inside the overturned ship. Analyzes show that the two ships ran parallel through the lively sea channel between Sweden and Denmark.
The first indication of the accident came when the Swedish monitoring station received a signal from the EPIRB emergency lighthouse on the Danish ship. The Coast Guard began to investigate and contacted Scot Carrier. “The other officer, who was on the bridge at that time, asked the commander to come to the bridge Scot Carrier where he reported contact with the Coast Guard “, according to the shipping company.
When all crew members had been reported and an initial damage assessment completed, Scot Carrier then returned to the scene of the incident and launched a lifeboat to participate in the search and rescue operation. The shipping company considers the time between the event and the Scot Carrier change the course to the location of the event was under 25 minutes.
Swedish sea rescue, the coast guard and two Danish ships joined the search, which lasted until the middle of the morning. The overturned ship was then towed to a more protected position when divers began an investigation and discovered the body of one of the two missing crew members.
The Scot Carrier was piloted by the Swedish Maritime Administration on Monday evening into Ystad. The Swedish Transport Agency inspects the ship. Officials were seen using underwater drones to inspect the ship in addition to images of a dent in the bow of the ship.
Today, the Coast Guard planned to relocate Karin Høj. They expected that there would be tugs that had been rented by the Danish shipping company and were waiting for a salvage plan. The Coast Guard’s environmental operations group focused on stabilizing the situation and monitoring the ship until the owner takes over.